When @DacotaLameHumor shared this cute video with the caption "My cat just locked up my dog lmfaooo", people on Twitter saw it as one more proof of cats' superiority over dogs. 

Game launched in October 2019

A 3D printed grate can be used to make a smart window that blocks heat from sunlight out in the summer while letting it through in the winter, conserving energy

Sister firm Sidewalk Labs cites Covid-19 as the reason for stepping back from its ambitious plan.

Eating the right fruits, vegetables and spices can ensure you remain cool during the summer season, suggest experts. Chef Sudhir Nair, Executive Chef at Courtyard by Marriott and Fairfield by Marriott, Bengaluru and Chef Kasiviswanathan, the Executive Chef for Radisson Blu Atria, Bengaluru share some easy and interesting tips that will help your body cope with the heat:

1. Opt for a light breakfast: Eat and enjoy a light breakfast every morning comprising of fresh fruits and lots of liquids. Avoid citrus juices and instead opt for tender coconut or melon juice. Cucumber juice or salad would also be a great option. Try and cut down on a heavy breakfast to keep yourself cool and healthy during the summer months.

2. Avoid high starch food: During summer, it is good to avoid high starch foods, especially rice or wheat. Lunch should be the heaviest meal of the day in summers. Keep low on yoghurt consumption. Instead, increase the intake of buttermilk. Keep your food low on spices and high on liquid.

3. Keep yourself away from aerated drinks: Do not drink chilled water or aerated beverages. This is because chilled water or aerated beverages will disrupt the digestive process in the body. Keep a close watch on your sugar consumption. Ice creams though tempting in this time is rich in sugar and cream but an iced fruit lolly would be a legitimate indulgence.

4. Avoid spicy food: Avoid using spices such as mustard, ginger, and chilli. Also, eat less of tomato, peppers and garlic during summer.

5. Use herbs for cooking: Cook with cooling herbs such as fennel, dill, mint, and coriander. Allow use of spices like cumin, cinnamon, green cardamom in your food. Use vegetables such as white pumpkin, broccoli, snake gourds, drumstick and madras cucumber.

6. Boil, steam, and stew: Milk, coconut, butter and ghee in small proportions is cooling for the body. Best methods of cooking these foods would by boiling, steaming and stewing. It is best to avoid fried foods during summer as they would give undue stress to the digestive tract.

7. Enjoy small meals: Enjoying small meals throughout the day during summer is the smartest way to keep yourself cool during the season. Include fruits like ice apples, varieties of melons, sugarcane, and varieties of ripe mango, cashew apples and jackfruit in your diet. All of these are found in abundance in this season.

(Edited by mid-day online desk, with inputs from IANS)

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More than a quarter of India's population or 337 million people would use a smartphone in 2018 -- a 16 per cent growth which is the highest rate of any country in the world -- market research company eMarketer said on Thursday.

Since its last forecast, eMarketer increased its estimate for the smartphone audience in India by more than 31 million people.

This uptick is thanks to the growth in smartphone usage in urban areas, where affordable smartphones are becoming widely available, the research firm said in a statement.

"India still faces technological challenges that are holding back mass smartphone adoption. "Mobile Internet speeds are among the slowest in the world, around two-thirds of the population still lives in rural areas and feature phones are by no means obsolete," said Chris Bendtsen, Senior Forecasting Analyst, eMarketer.

Advertisers can still be optimistic about the future.

"Smartphones are getting cheaper, mobile data prices have fallen and urbanisation continues. Over the next four years, as speeds and rural reach improve, eMarketer expects the smartphone audience to reach close to half a billion users," Bendtsen noted.

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Aiming to disrupt India's mid-segment smartphone market, Samsung is set to launch four new smartphones -- two each in Galaxy "A" and Galaxy "J" series -- this month.

The upcoming Galaxy A6 and Galaxy A6+ smartphones could be priced between Rs 20,000 and Rs 25,000 while the devices in Galaxy "J" series could cost customers Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000, industry sources told IANS on Friday.

Two of the four smartphones in the upcoming line-up would come with dual camera set-up, the sources added.

All of them will be made at the company's Noida facility. The smartphones will feature Samsung's super AMOLED "Infinity Display" -- bezel-less screen that creates an immersive viewing experience.

Notably, Samsung's flagship smartphones such as Galaxy Note 8 and Galaxy S9 series feature the "Infinity Display". Now, with the upcoming devices, the display feature would be introduced at lower price points in the Indian market.

The South Korean giant first introduced the "Infinity Display" in Galaxy S8 series in 2017.

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Targeted at millennials, Chinese smartphone maker OPPO on Tuesday debuted its sub-brand "Realme 1" smartphone in India for Rs 8,990 (3GB RAM and 32GB internal storage model).

The 6GB RAM and 128GB internal storage variant is priced at Rs 13,990.

The smartphone comes with the world's first 12-nm Artificial Intelligence-based MediaTek Helio P60 chipset with "AI shot" technology.

"Realme 1 is focused at young online consumers and is primed to be a market disruptor with a stylish design," Madhav Seth, Chief Executive Officer, Realme India, said in a statement.

The device will be available on Amazon India, starting May 25, in diamond black and solar red colour variants.

A third variant with 4GB RAM and 64GB onboard storage, in moonlight silver and diamond black colours for Rs 10,990 will go on sale in June.

Realme users will have access to over 500 OPPO service centres across the country with guaranteed 90 per cent repair cases resolved within an hour.

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Illustration/Amit Bandre

New Delhi: On an average, a college student in India checks his mobile phone over 150 times a day, according to a study conducted by Aligarh Muslim University and the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR).

The research, titled "Smartphone Dependency, Hedonism and Purchase Behaviour: Implications for Digital India Initiatives", has been conducted in 20 central universities, where 200 students each were interviewed.

"Anxiety and fear of missing out on information make university students check their mobile devices as many as 150 times a day on an average, an activity which can have adverse effects on the students' health as well as academics. "Only 26 per cent of the respondents said they use smartphones primarily to make calls. The remaining respondents use smartphones for other purposes such as accessing social networking sites, Google searches and for entertainment such as watching movies," said Mohammed Naved Khan, the Project Director.

At least 14 per cent of the students use smartphones for three hours or less in a day while around 63 per cent of them use it for four to seven hours daily.

"It came as a shock to us that around 23 per cent (of students) use the devices for more than eight hours a day," Khan added.

According to the study, eighty per cent of the students own a mobile phone and most of them prefer smartphones owing to convenience in the installation of applications, host of features, and ease of use and also work as affordable substitutes for a computer. The study conducted by researchers at AMU has been funded by the ICSSR with an aim to understand various facets of smartphone dependency and addiction among college-going students.

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Representational Image

Surgeons are developing a new smartphone-based tool that can detect urethral or urine blockage, potentially making it easier for patients to test themselves for the condition from the comfort of their own homes.

The novel technique could take high-speed photography which could capture subtle differences between a normal steady stream of liquid and a stream of liquid with an obstruction.

Urethral strictures are a slowing or blocking of the natural flow of urine due to an injury or infection. It is normally diagnosed by uroflowmetry, a test administered at a physician's office.

"The problem is that patient follow-up after we treat this condition is very poor," said Matthew Gretzer, Associate Professor at the University of Arizona in the US.

"But we need patients to come back to our clinic for a uroflow test to determine if the obstruction is still present," he added.

In order to test Gretzer's hypothesis on high-speed photography, the team created a model of a urethral structure using tubing hooked to a saline bag that could drain through.

Saline fluid was passed through the tubing with and without blockages, created using 3D printed strictures,placed within the tubing. High-speed photography captured both the regular and blocked stream of liquid exiting the tube.

Gretzer contended that photos can be a medium to diagnose blockages and he hopes that patients could send him these images to analyse and make the diagnosis. He plans to create a mobile app which can be downloaded by the patients.

"All patients would need to do is take high-speed images of their urine flow using a strobe light," Gretzer said.

"Strobe light apps are readily available right now for people to use on their phones".

According to the researchers, as fluid exits an opening, a natural breakpoint occurs where the liquid stream forms droplets, but with obstructions in place, it changes.

The results showed that by analysing photos, they could measure the length to this point of droplet formation. This length then directly related to the presence of an obstruction in the tube.

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Hina Khan is the classic example of been there, done that. In a career spanning over a decade, the actor has dabbled in fictional shows, reality TV and web series. Now, she has appeared in her first short film, Smartphone, available on the Ullu App. The short film has her essaying the role of a homemaker. The actor believes the film's message of women empowerment drew her in. "Suman [her character] showcases true women power. The film highlights how one should not underestimate anybody," she says.

If the story struck a chord with her, working with Akshay Oberoi and Kunaal Roy Kapoor was an enriching experience as they fed off each other's creative energies. "There's always something interesting to pick up from the way your co-actor works on himself during a shoot. We all learnt something from one another whether it was during our rehearsals or over conversations about our respective characters."

Hina Khan

Few actors can boast an easy transition from legacy television to streaming, but Khan believes every medium has been instrumental in helping her grow as a performer. "Every medium has been kind to me. After television where I was a part of some amazing shows [including Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai and Kasautii Zindagii Kay], digital entertainment and films gave me a grand welcome with Damaged 2 and Hacked respectively. At the moment, OTT platforms are producing impressive content. The diversity [they offer] is enriching for an actor."

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After travelling for hours, people look forward to settle down in their hotel rooms, away from dirty transport and several air-borne diseases.

However, not many are aware that the sigh of relief is far from being true.

Hotel rooms are often filled with viral diseases and infections. In order to beat them, here are some tips to create a healthier environment in your hotel room.

1. Raid the bed bugs- Stripping down your bed of its linen and checking for bugs might do the trick. Travel and Leisure also suggests examining the upholstered furniture, curtains, and headboard for the little termites.

2. Ditch the bedspread- Just because bedspreads can be laundered does not mean they often are. Reneta McCarthy, a former housekeeping manager for a major American hotel chain, told CNN that hotels may not switch out the duvets when they are providing fresh top sheets. Your best bet is to play it safe and store the comforter or duvet in the closet

3. Disinfecting commonly used items- Carrying antibacterial wipes in your luggage can be your best bet. You can use them to disinfect most commonly used items such as door handles, light switches, toilet flushes, telephones, television remote, faucets, bedside tables and such.

4. Opening the window- Sometimes, hotel rooms are full of still air which is often full of air-borne bacteria - due to lack of proper ventilation and air circulation. Opening the window improves circulation and invites fresh air. Also, opening a window can help you adjust to the local time zone.

5. Avoid using in-room glassware- Try and use plastic wrapped cups or opt bottled water, if available. There are many times when proper cleaning and sanitisation of used glasses is not ensured in hotels.

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Scientists have developed the first ultrasound-firewall that can prevent hackers from eavesdropping on hidden data transmission between smartphones and other mobile devices. The permanent networking of mobile devices can endanger the privacy of users and lead to new forms of monitoring.

New technologies such as Google Nearby and Silverpush use ultrasonic sounds to exchange information between devices via loudspeakers and microphones. More and more of our devices communicate via this inaudible communication channel. Ultrasonic communication allows devices to be paired and information to be exchanged.

It also makes it possible to track users and their behaviour over a number of devices, much like cookies on the Web. Almost every device with a microphone and a loudspeaker can send and receive ultrasonic sounds. Users are usually unaware of this inaudible and hidden data transmission.

Researchers from the St Polten University of Applied Sciences in Austria has developed a mobile application that detects acoustic cookies, brings them to the attention of users and if desired, blocks the tracking.

The app is, in a sense, the first available ultrasound-firewall for smartphones and tablets "The most challenging part of developing the app was to devise a method that can detect different existing ultrasound-transmission techniques reliably and in real time," said Matthias Zeppelzauer, who led the project.

Such ultrasonic signals can be used for so-called "cross-device tracking". This makes it possible to track the user's behaviour across multiple devices, and relevant user profiles can be merged with one other. In this way, more accurate user profiles can be created for targeted advertising and filtering of internet content.

Unlike their electronic counterparts when visiting web pages, up to now it has not been possible to block acoustic cookies.

"In order to accept voice commands, the mobile phone microphone is often permanently active. Every mobile application that has access to the microphone, as well as the operating system itself, can at any time without notice: activate the microphone of a mobile device, listen to it, detect acoustic cookies and synchronise it over the Internet," said Zeppelzauer.

Users are often not informed of this information transmission during ongoing operation. Only a permanent deactivation of the microphone would help, whereby the device as a telephone would become unusable. Researchers developed a procedure to expose the cookies and inform device users. For masking and blocking the ultrasonic data transfer, interference signals are transmitted via the loudspeaker of the mobile device.

Thus, acoustic cookies can be neutralised before operating systems or mobile applications can access them. Users can selectively block cookies without affecting the functionality of the smartphone. The masking of the cookies occurs by means of ultrasound, which is inaudible to humans.

"There is currently no technology on the market that can detect and block acoustic cookies. The application developed in this project represents the first approach that gives people control over this type of tracking," said Zeppelzauer.

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They insist for standing instruction facility for debiting annually.How safe is this ? Normally we are advised by bankers to authorize every time and giving this sort of standing instruction ...will it not amount to a blank cheque?..

COVID-19 will lead to fundamental, and possibly, permanent behavioural changes in the way people shop, consume media and how they regard the brands they do business with, said Prabhu Ram of CMR

Adding a wide range of immune-boosting foods to your daily diet and staying active all day can improve your immunity during this COVID-19 pandemic. With